Necessary Evil

Atlantis

The once-great city of Atlantis lies deep beneath the waves of the Atlantic, somewhere within the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. Although Atlantis enjoyed friendly relations with the people of Earth, very few normal folks ever got the chance to see its glory in person. Featuring an eclectic mix of Greco-Roman architecture, pictures from the fabled city’s sunken streets would sometimes find their way into magazines and newspapers, and interviews with Atlantean diplomats revealed hints of a culture both elegant and alien. They revealed a world of marbled avenues, sprawling undersea parks, and towers with spires of golden hue.

While many super-folk and high-ranking diplomats visited the undersea city over the years, the only “normal” people to do so were TV news host Sheila Glass and her intrepid cameraman Mark Winger. A personal friend of the famed Aquarian, the vivacious Glass managed to score a prime time news interview with the Atlantean King that was held within the Dome of Kings, one of the city’s many magically shielded, transparent hemispheres that retained a surface-like atmosphere and temperature. From there cameraman Winger was allowed to film as far as his camera could shoot, and Glass asked the Aquarian a barrage of questions about the ancient city and its mysterious inhabitants. The Aquarian deftly dodged Glass’ most sensitive questions, but did offer a few tidbits about the city’s history, he indicated that the magical domes were developed to preserve the most valuable aspects of the Atlanteans’ surface-world heritage.

Although few if any surface-dwellers saw it happen, the K’therans destroyed Atlantis with a massive bombardment of firepower from their fleet of attack ships. Tens of thousands of Atlanteans died, but several thousand survived to tell the tale. So far no surviving Atlantean has managed to travel back to the remnants of the sunken city and live to tell about it.